A Melody To Remember
by bringerofdestruction
Summary: She was the calm pianist, soothing the frazzled nerves of whoever was listening, and he was the diva, the one commanding the school with responsibilities burdening his back.  AtobexOC
1. Prologue

A/N: Alright, kids, Coco96 asked if I could make a series out f 'Everlasting Melody.' And quite truthfully, I have no idea how this is going to happen, so bear with me if I have to go back to revise countless times or just...stop. You know, like leave the story...or something. Hiatus. Yeah. I'm not the most committed person you can find, so don't blame me! :P ...mkay, so you should blame me, but still!

Summary: She was the calm pianist, soothing the frazzled nerves of whoever was listening, and he was the diva, the one commanding the school with responsibilities burdening his back. AtobexOC

Warnings: There will be mentions of yaoi in later chapters. Be sure to have a mouse at hand, because this will be quite cheesy and cliche. Full of mozzarella...or some other cheese. American. Laughing Cow Cheese. I'm getting off topic...oh. This will be my fail version of humour. And this will be a story of UNREQUITED LOVE. Just a heads up. My horrible attempt at humour will most likely make you lose a couple brain cells. Or maybe half of them...you get the point.

Disclaimer: You know that tennis rackets the 200+ members of the Hyotei tennis club seem to have? You'll get whacked with them, and I do not own.

**A Melody To Remember: Prologue**

"She's so talented!"

"Oh, Misa-chan is so pretty! That purple dress really suits her."

"Wow! Isn't she the president of the Music Club in Hyotei?"

Music flowed around the listeners in the concert hall. Low chattered filled the grand space, staying quiet enough to show respect for the performer. It was, after all, a wedding, and complete silence was relatively rare during such a happy celebration.

Taname Misa was _supposed _to be the background music. She'd been invited to play for one of her father's friends, and she'd accepted. However, the attention shifted from the newly married couple to her for some odd reason. Ah well.

She played the typical Beethoven Moonlight Sonata, 1st movement. It was such a simple, overplayed, and overrated piece. And everybody loved it. But...meh, she was here to please the masses, right? The role of a performer is to please his or her audience, so that is what she was going to do. And _not _agitate the poor listeners with furious flurry of notes that accompanies the other movements of Beethoven's famous sonata. Even if the reaction would be quite amusing to watch.

Humming, she moved on to another piece, making sure to use the soft pedal to dull the sounds.

"Misa-chan, your playing is so pretty! As to be expected from the daughter of the reknown Taname Mizuki!" the bride tittered happily, looking over the girl's shoulder to watch the swift fingers.

"Thank you, Hitake-san. Congratulations on the marriage," she smiled back, tilting her face slightly to the side while keeping a close watch on the keys. It wouldn't do to make a horrible blunder in front of so many people!

Hitake Mika smiled widely, nearly ecstatically. "Oh, thank you! Keep up that beautiful playing!"

The bride was then swept away by her husband, who wrapped her in his arms and guided her back to the crowd.

_It must be nice to have someone to love._

She mused on that fact. Well, _that _sounded depressing. Oh no, she had people to love. In fact, she loved her parents dearly. Her father doted on her music skills, and her mother supported her all the way.

A perfectly loving family. Really. No sarcasm there.

..._really_.

However, she wanted a friend. Not somebody who served her because she was the president of the music club, nor because he or she wanted to gain favors from her to help in his own music career. She wanted a _genuine _friend...well, she had Maika, but Maika had other friends to hang around with...and sometimes, truthfully, she'd rather not hang around the hyperactive girl.

It was sad, really, that everybody was so intimidated by her. She was just a small, petite, pale, fragile thing, right?

She absentmindedly moved on to a more...angsty piece. Everybody backed away a few paces. Oh yes, in their eyes, the petite girl was quite scary when she played.

Too bad she didn't know it.

XxX

Taname Misa walked into Hyotei Gakuen, uniform impeccably tidy on her petite form, hair done in a half ponytail. Her golden eyes glinted in the sunlight, casting an almost metallic sheen on them. She was relatively pleased with her body, actually. Pretty, but not overly so. Not quite ugly, either.

Well, _there_ was one thing that she didn't like about her body.

That pale, pale skin just never seemed to _tan_! She remembered just yesterday asking a little boy for directions, and the boy ran away, screaming about ghosts. Misa was relatively offended by that...

_Anyways_, she thought, dragging her thoughts from the random tangent they were going in. Today was only the second week of school, unfortunately, and she had to get the Music Club organized in time for the Start-of-Year Festival. How troublesome.

She quickly put her things in her locker and shut it, glancing at her watch. She still had an hour before she had to get to class, so she had time to practice.

Practice what? She mused, putting her finger on her chin and wondering, eyebrows furrowed. She stared at the ceiling, pondering the question, a clueless look on her face.

She just practiced the piano last night, and her flute skills had been polished at that camp in Italy over the summer. Oh...violin.

She winced, heading towards the storage room for the various instruments the members of the club owned. Opening her own locker, which contained a myriad of instruments, she felt a warmth at all of the cases in front of her. The cello took up some room, and the tuba was no small thing either. Well, the piccolo and the flute were stored safely in their own little corner. She doubted anyone would want to hear the high whistle of the piccolo this early in the morning. Heck, _she _didn't even want to hear it this early in the morning!

She finally spotted her violin case and scowled, reaching to pick it up. Of _all _the instruments, _violin _had to be her worst...! It was one of the prettiest ones, too.

Lamenting her failure in that one area, she glanced at her watch to see that only three minutes had passed during her slight random ramble in her head.

Really, _this _was exactly why she needed friends! Time passed waaaaaay too slowly.

XxX

Atobe Keigo rubbed his temples, scowling. Really, it was too early in the morning to do paperwork for the student council. It was only the third week too, sadly enough.

Glaring down at the forms, he carelessly signed some.

"Atobe, I hope that you know that you just signed the form from some of the students petitioning for the cafeteria to provide more Ponta. It won't be good for the students' waistlines," a baritone voiced stated, rather amused.

The silver haired man scowled again before turning, leaning his head on his hand and glared up at the blue haired tensai. "Oshitari, what are you doing here?"

"It's time for tennis practice, and I didn't want the infamous captain to be late," he said offhandedly, shrugging. "I figured you had a reputation to keep."

Standing, Atobe nodded his thanks. Putting back on his jacket, he grabbed the papers and shoved them rather ungracefully into his bag.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

It was people like Oshitari who kept him sane...somewhat. True, Oshitari sometimes contributed to his growing stress, but Atobe figured the tensai's benefits outweighed his burdens.

Standing by the fences, he observed the two hundred and something odd members striving to impress their captain. Well, that plan was majestically failing.

As he watched another failed attempt of a smash from a first year, he shook his head in an effort to get rid of his headache. Maybe he needed more sleep.

Or maybe it was that screeching violin that they had heard when passing the music hallway.

Atobe twitched at the murdering of one of his favorite instruments. Really, now, who could play the violin so badly? He had half the mind to just march up to the room containing the poor excuse of a musician and to scold him or her until they were a trembling mass at the feet of the great king.

He twitched, remembering the poor piece that the violinist was butchering. He'd rather listen to that horrible boy...Joustan Beebar? Chustin Beaver? Ah well. Whatever that boy's name was.

He watched another poor tennis player hit the floor from tripping on a tennis ball.

How was he going to survive this year?

XxX

A/N: I apologize. That was my attempt at humour. I know it sucked so...yeah. This was mainly an opening, an introduction and a little insight into the demented minds of Taname Misa and Atobe Keigo. Review, please! I'd really appreciate it if you'd do that. I'd also update faster...! *hint hint nudge nudge*


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: Alright, kids, here's the deal. I'll write to the best degree I can, and you guys review. Got it? Haha, great! Cuz you know, writing for people who don't review isn't very entertaining. :( So yeah. Awesome. ...I feel like I should write more, but I don't have anything to write. OH! One thing. I highly recommend you to go on Pandora...ya know, the online radio station? Right, type in 'Yiruma' as the station and listen! I actually listened to it when writing the original oneshot, so yeah.

Summary: She was the calm pianist, soothing the frazzled nerves of whoever was listening, and he was the diva, the one commanding the school with responsibilities burdening his back. AtobexOC

Warnings: Mentions of yaoi later. There will be much badly written romance attempts. Alsooooooo...yeah. I just realized how insanely short these chapters are...and I'm much too lazy to do anything about it. :D

Disclaimer: Ya know, I reaaaally don't get the point of these. Does anyone go around fanfiction to check the disclaimers and then sue the author senseless because he or she forgot? No...so why do we even write disclaimers? Meh...anyways. Atobe will intimidate you 'till you're a puddle on the floor with his greater-than-thou attitude, and I do not own.

**A Melody To Remember: Chapter 1**

"Misa-chaaaan!"

Misa grunted as a weight landed on her shoulders. A twitch mark appeared on her forehead as the many sheets of music spilled from her arms onto the floor as a result.

"Maika-chan, please get off of me," she gritted out, using her years of music to her advantage as she pried the girl's arms from her neck with strong fingers. See, music _was _useful in instances such as these! She had wickedly strong fingers.

"Ow, ow, ow, Misa-chan! That hurts!"

"Then get off of me."

The arms left her neck to be replaced with a pouting face sporting teary green eyes and messy short silver hair. Her heart-shaped face had a slight bit of chubbiness to it, but it wasn't unpleasantly fat. She was a tall girl with gentle features, someone who could lend a shoulder to cry on. Not that Misa would be able to, anyways, at least, not with her short stature.

"That hurt," she complained, bending down to help Misa pick up some of the lost papers. Fortunately, there weren't that many people out in the hallways this morning. Otherwise, Misa just _might _throw a tamper tantrum with the many students she would have to dodge to pick up the many sheets.

"Then learn your lesson," she answered crisply, turning and heading to her locker. She'd have to get ready for class soon. "Don't pounce on unsuspecting people."

"Aw, Misa-chaaaaaaan!"

Misa opened her locker and put her folder of music into it. Grabbing several binders and notebooks, she noted that Maika already seemed to have everything necessary for class.

"Let's go," she muttered, heading down the hallway, ignoring the childish girl behind her.

"Hai!"

XxX

"Yo, Choutarou, where's your sister?" Shishido Ryou asked, studying his best friend and doubles partner from the corner of his eye.

"Ah, Maika? She's with Taname-sempai again," Ohtori Choutarou answered, laughing. Really, his older sister loved the president!

"Your family is too centered around music," the older boy joked, rolling his eyes.

Seriously, Choutarou was obsessed with the piano! He practiced whenever he wasn't playing tennis, and sometimes he even gave practices to train for some kind of tournament or other. And don't even mention that flutist of a sister that silver head had. Sure, her playing was beautiful. That didn't mean that he enjoyed listening to it every time he went to visit his kouhai.

...well, okay, her playing wasn't that bad. He was lying through his teeth if he said that her playing was annoying. But having the girl burst through the doors whenever Shishido was having a man-to-man conversation with the younger teen? Not pleasant.

"Oshitari-sempai loves music too," Choutarou defended.

Ah, true, that tensai was a genius. His tennis and observation skills were scary, and he was top of class, occasionally topping even Atobe himself. Add crazy violin skills to the mix and drop dead looks to it, and it wasn't a wonder why girls swooned at the sight of the blue haired man.

"...true. But still, even Atobe doesn't even try so hard at music. Hell, you can probably top his piano skills," Shishido said, exasperated. Really, just a _day _without hearing something related to music. Was that too much to ask for?

"Ore-sama resents that comment. Ore-sama is the best at the pianist that has ever graced Hyotei," a voice announced, and Shishido sighed. It seemed like 'Ore-sama' had gotten off his high horse to talk to the commoners.

"Actually, Atobe, I'd say Chouarou's better," Shishido sneered at his captain.

Atobe huffed. His eyes narrowed, looking like an indignant child. Not that he would ever admit it, of course. "He's too young."

"He's only a year younger than you!"

"That's enough to make a difference between us."

"I bet he can play the piano waaaaay better than you," Shishido snorted, lips curling into a challenging smirk.

"Oh? Ore-sama could beat the boy at anything."

"How 'bout this? We get the Music Club's president to listen to both of you. Whoever wins will have gloating rights."

"Deal."

And poor Ohtori Choutarou was, once again, stuck between his best friend and his captain's arguments over the silver haired man's prowess in everything. He wondered if Hiyoshi had to suffer through arguments like this.

Seeing Hiyoshi throw him a sympathetic glance as he passed the bickering two, Choutarou sighed.

_They sound like an old married couple,_ he thought wryly.

And for all the world, it sounded as if it was his double partner's pride on the line instead of his! Really, sometimes, Choutarou just felt a little annoyed with his partner. He wasn't some prize to show off!

"He'll wipe the floor with your ass, Atobe!"

"We'll see about that."

XxX

Atobe entered the classroom with the usual flair, and Maika giggled. She rolled her eyes and announced in sync with Atobe, "Be awed by Ore-sama's prowess!"

Misa's lips twitched, forgetting her former ire with her one friend. "That's not nice."

"But you think it's funny!"

The musician sighed, propping her chin on her hand and bracing it on her desk. She ignored the diva as he walked past to sit by his friend, Oshitari Yuushi. The two exchanged the usual greetings ("Atobe."-"Be grateful that you've been graced by Ore-sama's presence.") before settling down. She looked down at her last week's notes and reviewed, just in case the teacher happened to throw a surprise quiz. She wouldn't put it past the old hag.

"...horrible violinist down the hallway. Really, Yuushi, what is the Music Department thinking about admitting that poor excuse of a musician?"

Misa was broken out of her studying and furrowed her eyebrows, focusing on the conversation behind her.

"Oh?"

"You were with me. You heard it."

"Ah...that one."

And Oshitari casted an amused glance at the tensed back of his president. Everybody in the Music Department knew that, while absolutely amazing at every instrument known to mankind, the poor girl was hopeless at the violin. Deciding that teasing the girl would not earn him any favors, he shrugged, eyes turning back to the raised eyebrow of Atobe Keigo.

"You never know, Atobe. He or she might be good at something else."

A sniff answered the tensai.

Misa, meanwhile, narrowed her eyes. _That pompous prick...!_

"And that president will be judging Ohtori and I..."

The rest of the conversation was drowned out by Misa's fury. Her hands trembled, pencil cracking slightly at the intense pressure on it.

_That rich prat will _pay_! Oh, I'll make sure of it..._

Maika, glancing at her, flinched. Dang, she was angry! Hopefully it didn't have anything to do with the earlier music sheet fiasco. Nodding to herself, she decided to watch who she would be pouncing in the future. For the safety of those all around her. And for herself, of course.

Self-preservation is a very important thing for the survival of a species, after all. And she really did not want to die at such an early age.

XxX

Author's Note: That's Chapter 1! Hopefully, not too random and not too utterly bad. I just realized how utterly _short _it is. As a side note, I have to change the characteristics of Misa from the main character of my oneshot a tad bit. The way the relationships and characters are developing, it won't be too big of a surprise if this story is totally different from my original work. Who knows, it might even end out happy in the end. *wink* Anyways, review, please! :D


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: ...you know, sometimes I feel like my notes are longer than the actual story content. I HAVE SO MUCH HOMEWORK IT'S RIDICULOUS. First, I have term paper (blarghhhhh), then I have AP Chem, then AP History, and on top of that, AP English! Then I have physics, and everybody just looooooves physics. Let's not forget Pre-Calculus BC. I don't see how I'm gonna survive this year. Don't the teachers have enough sense not to pile this much homework on us poor, hapless juniors? Ahn...thanks for everyone who reviewed! And since this fic is based on my oneshot, I just copy and pasted some parts into the story. :P I'm lazy, deal.

Summary: She was the calm pianist, soothing the frazzled nerves of whoever was listening, and he was the diva, the one commanding the school with responsibilities burdening his back. AtobexOC

Warnings: Mentions of yaoi later. Um...yeah. A bit of swearing, but nothing that should make you too uncomfortable, hopefully.

Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. Nadda. Zilch. Otherwise, there would be yaoi everywhere, and with my crappy writing skills, much less popularity. I've given up on finding stupid PoT related disclaimers like I have the previous chapters...so yeah.

**A Melody To Remember: Chapter 2**

Atobe Keigo was not a happy man right now.

His usually perfect hair was still perfect, his eyes were still the contemptuous icy blue, the haughty face still donning his perfect features, and stance resuming the usual king-like posture.

Oh no, none of it reflected physically. However, inside, his mind was in turmoil. This was, contrary to popular belief, his usual state of mind, no thanks to student council responsibilities and tennis club activities.

He was no superhuman who kept a clear mind at all times, though he seemed like it. He unconsciously made the decisions befitting a leader. None of it was really...well, conscious, deliberate. If that made any sense...

He ruffled his hair in the hallway after making sure that there were no students to witness his unkempt state. His mind buzzed.

_There's the Opening Festival...I'm going to have to make it unlike any other, naturally. I need a performer for the opening, probably then a booth for the tennis club. Then there's Yuushi and Gakuto...they've really got to stop showing their affections so openly. And, damn, I forgot about Greek homework. _

He always made it in time, though, before anyone really realized his slip-ups. Actually, Oshitari was the only one who caught his mistakes and was decent enough to ignore them, sometimes even finishing some left-over work behind the captain's back. Atobe really did owe him one.

Atobe was actually free at the time...in a way. Sure, he could work ahead, and nobody expected the student council president to _procrastinate_, of all things, but he did...occasionally.

So lost in his thoughts that he failed to notice a melody floating out of one of the music practice rooms until he was right beside the practicing hall. He paused, blinking at the soothing, lyrical quality of the _ping ping ping _of the piano. It formed some melody he did not recognize. It definitely was not classical or any piece he had ever heard before. And he'd heard a lot.

Well, it was a nice and pleasant change from that...banshee violinist he'd heard a couple of days ago. And for some reason, Yuushi seemed amused and, at the same time, defensive of the musician. Strange...

He leaned on the wall by the door, closing his eyes and feeling some weight lift off his shoulders. It was as if the piece melted away his worries.

As the piece ended, he snapped out of his reverie and scowled at himself. Really, he had work to do and could not waste time listening to foolish pianists.

But really, he'd rather listen to that pianist than that...violinist. If he or she even had the right to be called that.

XxX

Misa finished her piece with a flourish, grinning. It sounded better than she'd thought! Well, technically, she'd finished the melody. Tch.

After that incident with the self-proclaimed king of the school, she needed to release stress. And what other way than to write a piece for her beloved instrument?

She fiddled with her pencil before leaning forward to mark a note on the sheet music. Maybe a minor chord here...

She played the phrase, smiling at the new improvement. Tapping out a continuation of the melody on the ivory and ebony keys, her face screwed in concentration as she improvised some of the supporting chords. Oh, that one sounded bad. With a shift of her pinky, a twitch of her ring finger, and the chords continued.

Slowly, the piece took the shape from a line of notes that formed the melody to a fluttering cascade of sounds. She'd intended this one to reflect the joys of soaring through the sky, the heartbeat of the bird as air glided through silken feathers, and the sharp whistle as it plunged dangerously close to the ground only to sweep up with only a mild rearranging of tail feathers. Freedom...freedom from a strict society where everybody expected everything from her.

Her right hand played notes in fast succession in the highest range of the piano while her left had took on the melody. Misa's golden eyes darted between the two hands to ensure accuracy.

People called her a genius to be able to play an improvised piece and write it down note for note in a matter of one or two hours. She preferred the term practice. God knows how long she spent in the practice room with her music theory notes that she meticulously took during class. She had trained her ears, as impossible as the task was, to recognize majors, minors, diminished, augmented sixths, and a myriad of other chords that were too obscure for others.

Then she had to learn how to react fast enough to turn the tide of a piece. If it started heading in the wrong direction, she would have to steer the chords in the right direction.

And sometimes, she just lost herself, not really caring if it sounded ugly. What if there was a discordant note? What if that cadence did not fit in there? Who cared? Nobody but herself, and sometimes, she didn't care. She just lost herself in the sweep of notes, in the rocking lullaby, in the dancing of waltzes.

Her hands carried her to end the piece with a trill that faded away. How befitting that the bird would just fly away, away, away...

She scribbled down the notes and grinned triumphantly. This would be fit to go on the school's annual musical recital repertoire!

Misa glanced at her watch as she flipped her wrist in a dramatic flourish and blanched. Damn...she had five minutes to get to class!

XxX

"There are several rules to logarithms. For example, when numbers are divided within..."

Atobe ignored the teacher. He'd learned this enough times to know it like the back of his hand. No sense in listening, though he did keep half an ear out if sensei had happened to pull a question on him.

The silver haired man's thoughts turned towards that melody that he'd heard while passing the music students' practicing hallway. That tune was truly magnificent, he thought grudgingly. It was something he'd never heard before but was prominent enough for the great king to remember it. He remembered the lilting notes, the fluttering high melody, the rapid and impressive plunge from the climax to deep rumbling notes before ascending to the middle of the piano's range. Magnificent.

He played the melody in his head again before shaking his head, clearing his thoughts. Maybe he'd find out who that musician was. He or she was worth at least a pinky sized portion of his recognition, which he thought was quite generous already.

On that note, he'd still have to find the president...he had that little bet with Shishido, and he was going to win. No matter what.

"Atobe-san, please tell me the answer to this question."

The teacher's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and he scanned the simple logarithmic problem before answering, voice adopting a condescending tone.

"X will be equal to five."

"See, Taname-san? If you had just paid attention..."

And again the voice trailed off as Atobe became immersed in his thoughts, unaware of a certain fuming Music President that was vowing to rip off the rich prick's head.

First he insulted her. Then, he had the nerve to show her up, like he was better than her!

She'd _kill _him!

XxX

Misa stabbed at her lobster viciously. Maika shot her wary looks, winding her noodles around her noodles and sticking them in her mouth.

"...and then he said that my violin skills sucked!"

"But that's the truth, right?"

Misa shot her a scathing glare. She waved her chopsticks in front of Maika's face, lobster dangling off the sticks of wood. "Regardless, that was plain rude!"

"He was just stating the facts," the silver haired woman said, eyebrows furrowed.

The president stuck the meat in her mouth, chewing with vigor. Swallowing, she announced, "I'll show that prat one day. He'll rue the day he pissed me off."

Maika was, quite frankly, confused. Really, Misa did suck at the violin, and Maika blatantly stated that fact in front of her prodigious friend. Why did it piss her off when a mere stranger said the same? And what could a tiny girl like Taname Misa do to the almighty Atobe Keigo, captain of the tennis team and the student council?

Misa was a very strange girl, Maika concluded. Yes indeed, a very gifted, insane girl.

"Of course," Maika placated.

The pianist nodded, smirking. "I'll get revenge on him."

"And how will you do that?"

"...shut up, Maika."

And so, Misa hadn't made any progress in any aspect of her life in that lunch period.

XxX

Author's Note: M'kay, that last passage was just random. I thought I needed to make the fic longer, so I added it. And now it's just a random addition that has nothing to do with the story, really. Ah well. Review, please! The next one will hopefully be out sometime next week. :D


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